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Artemisia annua L.
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English Name |
Sweet Sagebrush, Sweet Wormwood |
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Latin name |
Artemisia annua L. |
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Family & Genus |
Asteraceae, Artemisia |
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Description |
Annual herbs, whole plant with strong volatile oily fragrance, 40-150cm tall. Erect stem, with longitudinal strips, multi-branched, smooth and glabrous. With basal leaves and cauline leaves, basal leaves tiled on ground, leaves fall when flowering occurs; cauline leaves alternate, with short stalks, upwards gradually sessile; most leaves are tripinnatisect, lobes thin and short, dark green above, pale green below. Capitulums, fine, diameter ca. 2mm, spherical, with soft short peduncles, numerous together into panicle-shapes; involucres spherical, small; all small flowers are tubular, yellow, peripheral female flowers, central bisexual flowers. Achenes, most are elliptic. Flowering: August to October. Fruiting: October to November. |
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Distribution |
Growing on mountain slopes, open fields, roadsides and riverbanks. Distributed in the southern and northern parts of China. The medicinal materials are produced in all parts of China. |
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Part Used |
Medical part: entire plant, fruits and roots. Chinese name: roots: Qinghaogen. Entire plant: Qinghao. Fruits: Qinghaozi. |
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Harvest & Processing |
Roots: excavated in autumn and winter, well washed, cut into segments and sun-dried. Entire plant: collected during bud time, cut up and sun-dried. Fruit: collected the fruits branch when fruits matured in autumn, threshed down fruits and sun-dried. |
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Chemistry |
Roots contain canthin-6-one, and 10-hydroxy canthin-6-one, etc. Aboveground parts contain terpenoids, such as qinhaosu, artemisinin, arteannuin, and artemisinin C, flavonoids, such as chrysosplenol, chrysosoplenol D, and casticin, etc, coumarins and volatile oils, etc. |
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Pharmacology |
Anti-bacteria, anti-viral, anti-parasites, cellular-immunity-enhancing, anti-arrhythmia, heat-clearing, and anti-tumor. |
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Properties & Actions |
Whole plant: bitter, little warm, cold. Fruits: sweet, cool.Entire plant: clearing heat, arresting summer heat, removing deficiency- heat and arresting malaria. Fruit: clearing heat, improving eyesight and expelling parasites. |
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Indications & Usage |
Root: osteopyrexia, arthralgia, blood in stools. Whole herb: summer heat, summer dampness, and damp-warm syndrome, fever with yin asthenia, malaria, jaundice. Fruits: osteopyrexia, dysentery, ulcer, sarcoptidosis, bastard measles.Root: oral administration: decocting, 3-15g. Entire plant: oral administration: decocting, 6-15g, for malaria, 20-40g for use, not suitable for long time decoction; double dose for fresh use, immersed in water or extracted juice. External: appropriate amount, powdered for application, or fresh ones triturated for application; or decocted for washing affected parts. Fruit: oral administration: decocting, 3-6g. External: appropriate amount. |
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Examples |
1. Sunstroke: pestle tender sweet wormwood herb leaves and prepare pills as large as soy bean with hands. Swallow with fresh water, and will be cured with a few pills.
2. Consumptive disease, night sweat, feverish dysphoria and dry mouth: sweet wormwood herb 1 jin. Obtain juice and decoct paste, add ginseng powder and dwarf lilyturf powder 1 liang each, decoct to prepare pills as large as semen firmianae. Swallow 20 pills after meals each time.
3. Malaria: sweet wormwood herb, ramulus cinnamomi, grind into powder. Or if there is excess coldness, add more ramulus cinnamomi than sweet wormwood herb, fresh ginger 2 liang, pestle juice with peels and prepare with hot alcohol, lie in bed covered with clothes and quilt; if there is excess heat, add more sweet wormwood herb than ramulus cinnamomi, swallow pills just as mentioned above, and use ramulus cinnamomi and sweet wormwood herb at a ratio of 3 to 7. |
| Link to |
 Chinese Medicinal Material Images Database
Phytochemical Image Database
Chinese Medicine Specimen Database
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Permanent URL：https://sys01.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/cmed/mpid/detail.php?herb_id=D00676 |
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